WASHINGTON, June 6, 2011 /PRNewswire-USNewswire/ -- The U.S.
economic crisis has severely accelerated a health emergency for more and
more Americans, says the nation's largest professional organization
and union of registered nurses which will bring more than 800 RNs from
31 states to Washington this week to propose a new agenda to heal the
nation.

(Logo: http://photos.prnewswire.com/prnh/20060525/NETH016LOGO)

National Nurses United, which represents 170,000 RNs, will convene a
conference Monday and rally Tuesday outside the White House, Chamber of
Commerce, and Congress, calling for a re-charting of national priorities
with a Main Street Contract for the American People. They will be joined
by labor and community allies with up to 1,000 expected at the
rallies.

The nurses are linking enduring economic hardship to broad declines
in health and living standards for substantial segments of the U.S.
population. Low wages, unemployment, hunger, substandard housing and
declining access to education and health are cited by the RNs as the
source of serious harm to communities across the nation.

Health conditions nurses identified as linked to the current
prolonged economic decline include stress-induced heart ailments in
younger patients, especially in men in their 40s; hypertension;
pancreatitis, typically an adult disease now increasingly found in
children due to high fat diets linked to low incomes; a range of
"gut" disorders, such as colitis; increased obesity linked to
poverty; manifold mental illnesses, including anxiety disorders, in
youth populations; and higher asthma rates with reports surfacing of
deaths as a result of the delays tied to poverty or insurance
obstacles.

"Every day patients call me to say that are putting off a
procedure, like a colonoscopy, because they cannot afford the
co-pay," says NNU Co-president Deborah Burger, RN. "Employers
change the terms of health insurance coverage, raising costs to workers,
and many do not know it's happened until they show up in need of
care and are shocked and embarrassed and unable to pay."

"People are going without care at a time when stress-related
illnesses are up," says Jean Ross, RN, a NNU co-president.
"Mental illness is enormous and largely untreated."

"Stress-induced illnesses are growing-'gut' disorders
in people of all ages, even kids," said NNU Co-president Karen
Higgins, RN. "It is all stress from economic
circumstances."

"People are working harder than ever, two or even three jobs to
make ends meet. Often it's tied to a problem in the household or
extended family-unemployment or sickness," Burger added. "Men
in their 50s, engineers who were laid off and living in my community,
have given up looking for work. There is nothing out there."

"We see extreme angst in children-serious anxiety disorders.
They are worried about whether Mom and Dad have jobs and they hear the
talk about losing the house. Patients cannot afford to be out of work,
so they are coming to work ill and with symptoms," Ross said.

"RNs are scared and nervous. Some are single moms, others have
laid off spouses, and their paycheck is critical. Many work an extra
shift or two to get by. Many of us have to put off retirement,"
Higgins noted. "We are back involved in the lives of our parents
because they are aging and vulnerable and do not have the resources to
get by."

The fallout in health indicators and other quality of life
indicators from galloping inequality and deprivation is stark, say the
nurses in testimonials that sometimes refer to their own homes and
families. The RNs cite a sharp rise in the health woes that they say
have a direct connection to the economic crisis; a number say conditions
are the worst they have seen in careers that span up to four
decades.

The nurses have put forward an agenda to stop economic decline and
protect American families, The Main Street Contract for the American
People. They are calling for jobs at living wages; guaranteed health
care for all; equal access to quality education; good housing;
protection from hunger; a secure retirement for everyone; a clean and
safe environment; and a fair and just tax system in which Wall Street
and those with the most wealth pay their fair share.

National Nurses United represents 170,000 RNs, with members in every
state, and is one of the fastest growing unions in the U.S. In the past
18 months, since NNU was formed through the affiliation of the
California Nurses Association/National Nurses Organizing Committee,
United American Nurses, and Massachusetts Nurses Association, NNU has
organized 10,500 RNs at 23 hospitals in eight states.

SOURCE Massachusetts Nurses Association

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